Mountain Biking in Flagstaff

Antoinette, Jeff, Steele, and Will

It was a nice spring day in Sedona -- trails in Flagstaff are slowly starting to dry, but are not rideable yet. I don't know if it was allergies, mild colds, or the thrill of the trail, but a few of us were sniffling a bit, and this led to the quotation (by Antoinette, asking if anyone had a Kleenex) that is the title of this travelogue. I don't know for certain if this is the first time this statement has ever been made on a mountain bike trail, but it seems possible.

We started on the bike-legal part of Long Canyon Trail, and then cut across the fabulous Deadman Pass Trail and a bit of FR 152 to Cockscomb trail. We then looped our way along bits of Rupp, Gartner, AZ Cypress, and OK trails before finishing the lollipop by coming back in on Deadman Pass to the trailhead. Doing Deadman pass both ways was "da bomb" for this ride -- the trail is superb with a different flavor in each direction.

Most of this ride was pretty easy, fast, curvy stuff, about as relaxing a spin as Sedona gets. The several crossings of Dry Creek were a bit dicey since it's still flowing briskly. The only downside of the periodic hike-a-bike was grungy cleats that led me to a spectacular, but fortunately not too painful, clipless pedal event.

Outbound on Deadman Pass trail, we stopped to help a really nice kid from Homer, Alaska, who had wrecked on a hill and cut up his shin fairly nicely. I hope the rest of your ride went smoothly, and if you ever see this, say hi, and come back to AZ sometime!

Below, Antoinette and Steele are cruising along, with Chimney Rock in the background.

Here's Will on Cockscomb Trail, riding his ultra-light carbon fiber frame Giant.

About halfway through the ride, we took a break when Steele decided he wasn't sure where we were, necessitating a brief consult of the map. There was lots of pointing and deliberation, at the end of which we decided we were either near the Cockscomb/Dawa intersection or the Gulf of Mexico.

Steele got this shot of me on a short climb on Rupp Trail. Since I have the camera and rarely get in any of the shots, I rode down a bit and then doubled back for the photo op. Of course the shutter clicked the very moment I got the front wheel at kind of a goofy angle.

Later, while the rest of us had some energy bars and Gatorade, Steele was practicing some sort of primitive sacrament at the creekside. This is becoming a disturbing tendency (see the previous travelogue to see what I mean).

Antoinette paused for a photo op on Deadman Pass Trail. This was toward the end of the ride, on our way back to the trailhead, and near the high point of the trail before the whirwind downhill on Long Canyon to the cars.

It was probably about 75 degrees, and it didn't seem as hot today as it did on our March 12 ride. We'll enjoy a few more treks down to Sedona and then hit the trails back in Flag.

[ Home page | Travelogue summary page ]